


Out of Reach

by usuallyblue



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 18:45:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9916103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usuallyblue/pseuds/usuallyblue
Summary: There's always a divide between what we want and what we have.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a dream scene from a larger story that's currently in the works. It might not make a lot of sense out of context, but I wanted to post it anyway. Part of the same world as my friend [FalconStrike](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalconStrike)'s work [Perfection, Darling](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8139758) who I'm writing the story with.

She was sitting on the dock. Their dock. The one they would wander off to in order to steal a quiet moment together. He wasn’t here though- He can’t be here. He’d be spotted, and she could always be watched...

Cool water met her feet, crystal blue reaching up to her ankles. A sea of colorful fish swam below. Like looking into glass, the bottom was perfectly clean but for the creatures and the few plants bellow. In the distance was a pristine blue sky, clouds lazily moving by as the water in front of her stretched on for an eternity, reflecting their image. 

Her hands settled on the worn wooden dock, calloused fingers running against the weathered grain. It was just as it had been last, their initials secretly carved where few would see.

Hands.

She brought them both up to her face, looking at both sides to make sure what she was seeing wasn’t some trick of the light. The light?

A huge grin crossed her face.

A trick? Now that would just be silly. They were there. It was too real to be anything else. Two hands, worn and calloused from her sword practice, from training day after day with her trusty partner.

She leaned over, running her fingers through the perfectly still water. The ripples echoed throughout the vast pond- ocean- sea before calming again.

Licking her dry lips, she thought back to the last time she’d had a chance to drink out of such pure water. Nothing that came to mind could compare. She lowered her hand below the surface, cupping it to bring some cool refreshment to her lips.

She pulled to bring her hand back, but it stayed, everything below her wrist was encased in water. No. Glass. Her feet slid out of the glass like spirits, touching down just on top of the surface. But when she tried to step back, her feet remained in place, as if frozen.

No matter how hard she tugged, her hand would not come free, remaining stubbornly trapped.

The lazy clouds were gone now, the sky darkening the more frantically she pulled, encased arm starting to bruise and blister from the strain. Skin bubbled and burst in mere moments, purple and black reaching far below the skin.

The plants disappearing into a sickening green color, sweeping everything living up into their embrace. The fish were gone, bones and flesh melted away in mere moments upon their touch.

She pulled faster, harder-

The green was rising to the surface, climbing closer and closer to the next living creature in its path. Her.

She pulled again, bile rising in her throat as she tried to hold it back.

The bone crunched, arm increasingly mangled as white shards pierced the skin. Still, she pulled until her hand was coated with blood, veins ripped open, muscles and tendons free to be seen. The green moved faster towards her. Hungry. Feeding. Devouring.

“Here,” said Cullen, holding out her sword to her. The one she had been given as a gift; it was lighter, easier to handle for fighting these days- “The sooner it’s gone, the sooner you can return to us.”

He smiled, ignoring the blood, the green, the screams of anguish- Screams? Had she been screaming?

“It won’t hurt anymore. I promise.”

But she wanted her hands. She had two of them. How could she give that up? They were real- He shouldn’t be here. Not safe- the green- no the others- they couldn’t know-

“It’s too late.”

She looked at her hand again, the green burning as it touched her fingers, her skin, devouring, growing as it crawled through her veins and then through the rest of her body.

She wanted to scream, but Cullen had covered her mouth with his hand, looking down at her with tears starting to form in his eyes. But he didn’t cry- rarely cried-

She raised a bloody hand to wipe away the tear that ran down his cheek.

“You could have come back. But instead you chose this.”

He held up her hand, glowing green with the mark. Pulsing, full of life as it threw her into a burning inferno. She screamed, and this time it echoed throughout the pond- lake- ocean- eternity.

Cullen was gone.

She fell to her knees, the black void surrounding her was only lit by the sickening green coming from her hand.

“Fascinating.” Remarked Solas, walking over to where she sat crumpled on the ground as his shoes echoed against the void. “I’ll have to think over what all of this might mean.”

She sat, silent, motionless, staring at her hand. He sighed, carefully placing his own hand on her forehead.

“Now awake.”


End file.
